Happy birthday Lucinda Williams!
Lucinda Williams talks about being influenced by Bob Dylan and his album “Highway 61” on the debut episode of “The Buddy and Jim Show” with Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale on SiriusXM Outlaw Country:
Tag Archives: Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan´s Gospel Years Part 5: Saturday Night Live Performance
In the autumn, Dylan made what many found a surprising appearance on ‘Saturday Night Live” on NBC-TV on October 20, performing three of the songs from the album, backed by five musicians and three female gospel singers ( and looking, despite the fire- and -brimstone lyrics sung, strangely tame: almost domesticated).
-Michael Gray (Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)He sang three songs that night. The least memorable was the first, a reluctantly delivered “Gotta Serve Somebody,” complete with a botched lyric. The other two — a passionate acoustic “I Believe in You” and, finally, a proselytizingly blazing “When You Gonna Wake Up” highlighted by searing support from Terry Young (organ) and Fred Tackett (lead guitar) — remain transcendent to this day.
-Villagevoice (Saturday Night Live’s Forty Essential Music Moments, Ranked)
Previous posts in this series:
- Bob Dylan: The Gospel Years, Part 1 – Awakening
- Bob Dylan´s Gospel Years – Part 2: Mysteriously Saved – 1979 Timeline
- Bob Dylan: The Gospel Years, Part 3 – Slow Train Coming (album)
- Bob Dylan: The Gospel Years, Part 4 – Best Song 1979 “Slow Train”
Continue reading Bob Dylan´s Gospel Years Part 5: Saturday Night Live Performance
Bob Dylan: The Gospel Years, Part 4 – Best Song 1979 “Slow Train”
Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted
Can’t help but wonder what’s happenin’ to my companions
Are they lost or are they found?
Have they counted the cost it’ll take to bring down
All their earthly principles they’re gonna have to abandon?
There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend
–
If I could keep only one performance from the Slow Train Coming album, it would have to be the title song, “Slow Train,” much as I love to listen to “Precious Angel,” much as I am in awe of Dylan’s vocal performance on all of “When He Returns” and pieces of “I Believe in You.” But “Slow Train” is it, the white-hot core of the album, the one track that can and must be listened to again and again and again, inexhaustible, essential.
-Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986)
Previous posts in this series:
- Bob Dylan: The Gospel Years, Part 1 – Awakening
- Bob Dylan´s Gospel Years – Part 2: Mysteriously Saved – 1979 Timeline
- Bob Dylan: The Gospel Years, Part 3 – Slow Train Coming (album)
..nothing less than Dylan’s most mature and profound song about America.
– Jann Wenner (Rolling Stone Magazine)
Slow Train:
Continue reading Bob Dylan: The Gospel Years, Part 4 – Best Song 1979 “Slow Train”
January 20: Bob Dylan & The Band @ The Woody Guthrie Memorial Concert in 1968
Woody Guthrie had died (after fifteen years of illness) on October 3, 1967, and, apparently at Dylan’s suggestion, plans were made to hold a benefit concert in his honor. The concert took place January 20, 1968, at Carnegie Hall; Dylan appeared backed by the Band (other performers included Odetta, Pete Seeger, Jack Elliot, and Judy Collins), and played three Woody Guthrie songs: “Grand Coulee Dam,” “Dear Mrs. Roosevelt,” and “I Ain’t Got No Home.” These performances were later released on a Columbia album called A Tribute to Woody Guthrie, Part 1. Dylan and the Band are in fine form here – their performances are inventive, exuberant, and sublimely musical.
-Paul Williams (Bob Dylan Performing Artist I: The Early Years 1960-1973)
Carnegie Hall
New York City, New York
20 January 1968
The Woody Guthrie Memorial Concert. Afternoon show.
- Bob Dylan (guitar & vocal)
- Robbie Robertson (guitar)
- Richard Manuel (piano)
- Garth Hudson (organ)
- Rick Danko (bass)
- Levon Helm (drums)
Continue reading January 20: Bob Dylan & The Band @ The Woody Guthrie Memorial Concert in 1968
January 19: The late Phil Everly was born in 1939 – The Everly Brothers and Bob Dylan
The late Phil Everly was born January 19, 1939 – R.I.P.
Here are two Dylan covers by The Everly Brothers & Bob Dylan singing two songs made famous by The Everly Brothers.
The Everly Brothers
I can hear the turning of the key
I’ve been deceived by the clown inside of me
I thought that he was righteous but he’s vain
Oh, something’s a-telling me I wear the ball and chainMy patron saint is a-fighting with a ghost
He’s always off somewhere when I need him most
The Spanish moon is rising on the hill
But my heart is a-tellin’ me I love ya still
Abandoned Love (from their 1985 Dave Edmunds produced album Born Yesterday)